332 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



17 left, for the bees to go in by, and at the end ^ a lid is 

 put on the hives so that the bee-keepers can get the 

 honey out. The best hives are made of bark, the 

 worst of earthenware, for the latter are most power- 

 fully affected by cold in winter and heat in summer. 

 The bee-keeper must inspect them in spring and 

 autumn about three times a month, using moderate 

 fumigations, and should cleanse the hive from dirt 



18 and expel any vermin. He should also see that 

 there are not several kings in the same hive, as 

 these do harm by reason of the quarrels they make. 

 Some^ people assert, as there are three species 

 of kings amongst bees — the black, the red, and the 

 striped, or according to Menecrates'' two, the black 



^ jExtrema, i.e., at the back. Cf. Pliny, xxi, 14, Utilissimum 

 operculum a tergo esse ambulatorium, sqq. 



^ Et quidam dicunt, etc. This sentence, vionstrum, horren- 

 dum, informe^ ingens though it is, was probably thus written by 

 Varro. The interminable parenthesis tria genera — nigrum^ and 

 the general confusion and clumsiness of the whole period is 

 characteristic of him at his worst. In this passage, moreover, 

 he is translating Aristotle, and does not seem to have under- 

 stood him, as he failed occasionally to understand Theophrastus 

 in Book I. Aristotle (ix, 40) writes as follows : dai dk ysvri tuIv 

 fieXiTTiHv ttXciw . . . dvo fitv I'lyffiovwVj 6 /xev /SfXriwv Trvppog, 6 de 

 'f^Tfpog fieXag kuI TroiKiXwrepoQ . . . r) dk apiaTt} fiiKpd crpoyyvXr} Kui 

 ttoikiXt}, oXXt] fiUKpa bfioia ry dvOprjvy. 'irepog 6 (pojp KoXovfievog fitXag 

 TrXaTvydoTOip k.t.X. It will be noticed that Aristotle gives two 

 varieties ; one reddish, the other black and striped, and that 

 Varro takes the words ' ' black and striped " as referring to 

 two separate species. 



^ Menecrates. Cf. i, i, 9: Easdem res etiam quidam versibus, 

 ut Hesiodtis Aspraeus, Menecrates Ephesius^ and Pliny, xi, 7. 



